Provincial Airways

Provincial Airways was a 1930s British airline that was formed in 1933 to operate a service between Croydon and the South West of England, the routes were never a success and the company closed at the end of 1935. The airlines main operating base was Croydon Airport. The managing director was Flight-Lieutenant Harold Thomas, who was one of the pioneer pilots in the early cross-desert mail services and served in WW1 and WW2 in the Royal Air Force. On the Board of Directors was Air-Commodore P.F.M. Fellowes D.S.O who led the first expedition to fly over Mt. Everest.

The company was formed on 12 October 1933 when it took over the assets of International Airlines Limited. International Airlines had attempted to operate a Western Air Express route to carry mail between Croydon, Southampton, Portsmouth and Plymouth using two Monospar ST-4s but the venture failed.^[1]

Provincial were to operate a similar route carrying mail, but in the end only two flights from Croydon to Plymouth with a stop at Southamton and return in November 1933 using De Havilland Fox Moths were carried out. In March 1934 they began a weekday service on the London to Plymouth^[2] route still using the Fox Moth which was replaced by the larger De Havilland Dragon in May. By 1935 they were flying a twice-daily service between Croydon and Penzance with stops at Portsmouth, Southampton, Bournemouth, Torquay and Plymouth.^[3] In February a new route was started between Plymouth and Hull.^[4] But the routes were not a financial success and the company closed on 10 December 1935.^[1]

• de Havilland Dragon
• de Havilland Fox Moth

• List of defunct airlines of the United Kingdom

Notes

Bibliography

• Cluett, Douglas; Nash, Joanna; Learmonth, Bob (1980). Croydon Airport 1928-1939. Sutton, Surrey, England: London Borough of Sutton Libraries and Art Services. ISBN 0-9503224 8 2.